[THE LEVIATHAN]

Do you post a goodbye message and/or announcement and then go in maintenance mode or a member's only mode? Or do you prefer to leave the site alone due to very low activity and go on (meaning no message or announcement)

[KOI KOI]

I despise maintenance mode. Leaving a message is fine but makes no difference. Assuming there's low activity, leave it open for those who want to go back and keep their stuff. Nothing is more annoying that losing a profile, format, table because you didn't know it would spontaneously close. Even then, I like to look back at sites I was on. There's a place where I only had a single thread but I still go back to reread it every now and then. And, on the off chance your place is doing decent but you don't have the will to go on, just leave it be. If you don't want to pass the torch, that's up to you, but you could at least let it flounder until everyone gives up.

[Pool Boy]

Always members-only mode. I consider everyone who joins my sites not to be strangers. Like golex, i like it when it accessible even when its over.

[Siren]

Compared to the majority of the community, I'm still fairly new to the role play scene, but I've staffed at some sites during the past four years (and by some, i mean three or four lol). In the past, I sort of let the site slowly become inactive, but I've started to consider putting up goodbye messages and announcements to make things official. However, this is only if it's absolutely clear that the site is beyond saving. If a few members (at least three or four) regularly log in, then I say let them continue; I personally feel as if it's just rude to yank a site away from them if they actively participate, although I do admit that there are circumstances where this would be understandable. Or, just elected new staff members and pass the power onto them if the site becomes too burdensome to handle. Sometimes, a lack of staff presence is also a cause of low activity, too.

It seems a lot more tactful this way, as it gives closure to anyone who wants to check back in several weeks or months from now and shows that the staff team have acknowledged that it's over.

So yeah, it really just depends upon the specific site. If the activity is low and there are a lot of members, I'd probably let the site continue. Maybe there's rl issues that're preventing people from posting, and giving them some time to recover from said issues would the best course of action. After all, some people are bound to come back and activity would rise again. But if activity is low and there's only a handful of members, then I'd close it without hesitation. There's a lot of factors that influence how a person closes a site, and I believe people can vary from one method to the next depending upon the site and its 'personality'.

edit: yeah, maintenance mode is sucky. i've lost a bunch of templates that way. if you're going to close a site, at least let the members come back and retrieve their stuff?

[Starry Neko]

I've only had one site I put on maintance mode and left it for staff only. It was a small rp- something that I really held dear, but it was mostly me doing all the work besides one other person. Literally- there were only three people who wished to actually keep in contact with me- and they all have access- but that's it. It was my baby, and one day I might bring it back. I didn't leave an announcement since the only active people already knew what I was doing. However I've learned for other sites, just leave them open. I disable registration and guest posting, but I leave it for the members to do. I however always make an announcement if I do so for that option.

[darth vader]

delete everything. the entire site. cut contact with everyone from the old site. appear on your new site with a new name, new identity. rinse and repeat as necessary.

[KOI KOI]

Apr 15, 2014 4:37:25 GMT -8 darth vader said:

delete everything. the entire site. cut contact with everyone from the old site. appear on your new site with a new name, new identity. rinse and repeat as necessary.

U DO THE DEVIL'S WORK, SON.

i wish u were joking ;c

liek dis if u cri evri tiem.

[SIFR]

Let it go~!♥

[Zozma]

Honestly?

TAV: Everybody lost interest simultaneously. It dragged on for months until I closed it. Eventually, the site was deleted when I moved servers.

Persona: Shattered Dreams: Only myself and one member who posted every three or so weeks. I need to post every day to stay interested. Closed it after six months of this BS. It was deleted when I moved servers.

King's Game: Handed it over to somebody else. It died and I left it alone until spammers started attacking it and then I closed everything, disabled registrations, etc. It was deleted in the server move.

Here and Queer: Lack of interest. Let it hang around until it died, then closed it. Deleted in the server move.

Pokemon: Prepare For Trouble!: Lost interest, lackluster posting toward the end. Made an announcement, closed it. It's still open to members.

Tellius: Abruptly put it into Maintenance Mode due to drama storm. Haven't put it back up since.

And then there's the private games but who cares what happened to those? As for all the deleted sites, I still have their databases so I can always put them back up on my new server. I warn people in my rules to always keep backups of their data on my sites.

[Elena]

The two sites I have been involved in their ending, got a story ending with a catastrophe (and the unlikely possibility that there were survivors, but nobody to tell - the survivors' story would be another one, untold.)

One got the three battling ships sunk all (one with the others' victorious cannonade and the other two a bit later by damages). The other site got an explosion.

The sites are online, for everyone to read the story. One has a good bye message, the other doesn't.

* * * * *

So, the explosion story:

There was once upon a time a site... which had been on life support for more than one year. There had been three writers left, then us two, and a post at more than one month wasn't enough.

There had to be an end to the site sometime. I hoped my partner would do the last post, but ultimately I had to do it. And I just did it. The town the story was happening in went off in a blast. If there were any survivors by miracle, their story is not told. It's a follow up for anyone or no one to write. But I am happy that there is a closure, that there isn't an abandoned site, but an ended story.

Sigurd cared less about how strange the new room looked - but he had learnt that the electric lights shouldn't look like these were looking, and he silently wondered if they were going to flip out like in the power outages regularly happening in the refuge.

He saw the crystal and two beings working somewhere around it, and he looked questioningly at the other man. His pistol was ready to fire - and it looked like he had to. His teachings as a knight would have wanted him to shout: "Freeze in the name of the law, or I'm firing!" but in these circumstances, he gave up on these, thinking it would give an undue advantage to their adversaries.

He understood that he had to do something to shut the machine down. Therefore, he fired his pistol once at the man and once at the beast by its side.

A third was intended for the machine itself... and as soon as he fired it, he saw an outburst of light. Flames starting dancing from the infernal device, while a deafening sound made his heart rush for a couple more beats, while the pain encircled him. At the same time, he felt a sudden wave of heat hitting him. Then, he had a sensation of floating, before not feeling anything, anymore.

The explosion went soaring away in multicolour rags of fire, encircling the gem and making it blow up in thousands of little pieces, the whole town set ablaze in belching flames with it.

In the ashes of the town, a thick smoke rose, twisting, writhing, changing shape, covering the ruins of the town like a funeral shroud.